4. _Final goal_: the utter elimination of all religion (called “bourgeois remnants”) from the heart, mind, and soul of man, and the total victory of atheistic communism. Religious attitudes keep cropping up, however, even in the trained member. One individual admitted that it had taken him a long time to give up his religion. “It was one of the hardest parts of my Party development.” Even in Soviet Russia, after a generation of the most bitter propaganda, religion is far from exterminated. “One of the most widespread traces of the past in the minds of the people,” said one Soviet writer, “is religious superstition and darkness, survivals of the old, antiscientific conceptions of nature, society and of man himself.” He adds, “The historic victories of atheism in our country do not mean, however, that religion is over and done with. There are still among us no few believers, i.e., people who continue to remain in the fetters of religion.” To combat these religious “remnants,” says this Soviet writer, more antireligious propaganda is needed. “... forming an advanced, materialist outlook in the rising generation and combating every type of superstition and religious belief make up a most important sector in the fight for the communist education of youth.” Another Soviet writer states, “Convincing, profoundly reasoned propaganda of atheism which does not offend the feelings of believers is the main characteristic of all antireligious work at the present moment.” Here, then, is the fight the communist leaders wage. We do not believe they can ever win it. These so-called “religious survivals” represent something far deeper in man than the communists can grant: some eternal reaching toward a creative source. But if the Party does not realize the true nature and strength of these “survivals,” it does realize that religion is its most potent foe. To meet this challenge no hesitant, indifferent, half-apologetic acts on our own part can suffice. Out of the deep roots of religion flows something warm and good, the affirmation of love and justice; here is the source of strength for our land if we are to remain free. It is ours to defend and to nourish. 24. _How to Stay Free_ The communist revolution in Russia is forty years behind us. In these four decades communism has had a chance to show what it does with power in its hands; how it treats the people who live under it; what its attitudes are toward law, education, science, and religion; how it handles its relations with the noncommunist world. It stands condemned on its own record. It has revealed basic errors in theory and practice which will eventually bring about its downfall. To turn around Karl Marx’s famous comment on capitalism, communism is digging its own grave. It cannot survive because it is anti-God and anti-man.